Preserving Tomatoes

Granddaddy Jerry had an abundance of late tomatoes this year so I decided to do some preserving.  I canned about 4 quarts of tomatoes, froze another 4, and made 3 pints of green and red tomato relish, and another 3 pints of salsa.  For those of you who have never canned, it's not difficult, but can be a little time consuming.  It helps to have an extra set of hands and I had my mother-in-law to help me with my first batch.  I didn't have any fancy canning equipment and ended up water bathing the jars in my large stock pot with a steamer basket on the bottom to keep them from touching the bottom of the pot.  It helps to have something to remove the jars from the boiling hot water and I improvised with some salad tongs. 
Canning Tomatoes
1.  get water boiling in a large pot
2.  fill your sink with ice water
3.  dunk a few tomatoes at a time in the boiling water for a few seconds
4.  transfer the hot tomatoes to the ice water
5.  peel off the skin and core and quarter tomatoes
6.  place them in another pot to cook
7.  wash and boil jars
8.  heat new lids in a small sauce pan
9.  put boiling hot tomatoes in clean jars
10.  quickly place on lid and ring
11.  some may seal on their own as you will hear a "pop" and not be able to press down the top of the lid, but it's safest to put the jars of tomatoes in a hot water bath (boiling water) for 15 min. to insure a good seal

For the salsa and relish I did the same thing except followed a recipe that included other ingredients. 
Green and Red Tomato Relish
1/2 dish pan peeled tomatoes (I only peeled the red ones and used about half red, half green)
2 onions
2 cayenne peppers
2 jalapeno peppers

3 cloves garlic

bunch of cliantro

2 bell peppers

1/8 cup salt

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup vinegar

ball of pickling spices (I tied up some in a bag made of cheese cloth)

cook until thick

Salsa
1/2 dish pan peeled red tomatoes

2 onions

2 cayenne peppers
2 jalapeno peppers
3 cloves garlic
bunch of cilantro
2 bell peppers
1/8 cup salt
1/2 cup vinegar

 cook until thick

Freezing tomatoes is much simpler as you simply peel the tomatoes using the flash boil method above and then core, quarter, and place in freezer quart bags.  I let them cool, label them, and place in freezer.  Both frozen and canned tomatoes are excellent for spaghetti sauce, chili, and soup but there's nothing quite like popping open a jar of canned tomatoes.